Day 5

So what did you learn yesterday? Anything new? Did you find out where your grand parents were born? Did you find any documents supporting the information. Are there any old birth certificates, marriage certificates, or Social Security card lying around? There are valuable supporting documents. There are also rich with history and should be cherished.

If your grand parents are deceased, you can try and look up some information on them on the Social Security Death Index. (http://ssdi.rootsweb.ancestry.com/) You do not need to know their social security number. You really just need their name but sometimes it helps to add more information you have. The Social Security Death Index will list their name, date of birth, date & place of death, social security number, and state where the number issued. Until about the last 15 - 20 years social security numbers were only issued when you applied for one and you only needed one if you wanted to work. The next issues is that the death had to be reported to social security. Yes, unfortunately deaths do not always get reported to social security or to anyone.

What about old photos, did you come across any? Again ask family members if they have any that you can at least borrow to again scan or photo copy. If you have a scanner and can scan the photos, offer to make copies for other family members. They also make great gifts. This is again a great way to keep the photos. I have many CD's with old photos on them. I try to group pictures by year and label the CD with the year or years. I also have an understanding with my family members that if they have lots of photos they want to get rid of that I will gladly take them. After I have scanned them and have them saved on disks and such, I scrapbook them. I don't like them just laying in a box. They belong in a book. Even if there are not other embellishments on the page they are at least in a book for others to enjoy.